As the "preparator" of the German Village gallery, Barth hangs artwork for exhibits and installs pieces that customers have purchased.

“I also handle shipping and framing — a lot of the details with the framing,” said Barth, who has worked at the gallery since 2011. “Basically, whatever they need, I try to accommodate.”

Less known are Barth's accomplishments as an artist himself; he has, in fact, been represented by the gallery for 14 years.

“I’ve been there long enough and worked with so many of the people they work with," he said, "that they’re beginning to realize that I’m not just the delivery guy.”

Barth’s artistic side is spotlighted in a new exhibit at the gallery.

“Eric Barth: Nature Abstracted,” on view through Nov. 30, presents a series of recent landscapes in oil and soft pastels on paper. The scenes include locales in Ohio and New Mexico (which the artist visited this year), but many exist only in his imagination.

“Some of the paintings are actually of nowhere in particular,” he said. “They’re just made-up scenes of landscapes generally.”

The works, which frequently depict wintry weather, are both brooding and bucolic.

“In the Shadows,” for example, shows the long shadows cast on snow by trees at the edge of a forest; the icy whites and blues suggest a chill in the air.

Several works, for example, present pathways stretching into an undefined distance. In “Desolate Way,” a road winds into a faraway horizon; in “From the Front of the House,” tracks are visible on a snow-filled street bordering a residence.

Also quietly haunting are “Evening, Lakeside,” in which the setting sun is reflected as a thin white line stretching across the surface of a serene body of water, and “(A) Stranger Here,” in which five tall tree trunks stand proudly in an otherwise-barren environment.

Barth’s lively, New Mexico-inspired works include “Santa Fe, Late Afternoon, February,” in which a bluish mountain range practically shimmers in the distance, and “Santa Fe Evening,” in which strips of pink clouds fill a bright-blue sky

Barth, who graduated from Ohio State University in 1992, intended to study industrial design before switching to painting. Then, after missing a week or two of school because of illness, he took up pastels.

“I had to start using some things other than paint that I could do in my room,” he said. “I’ve always loved oil painting, but I found that maybe I just don’t have the patience to use oil paints. ... Working with the pastels, I don’t have to allow for the dry times.”

The artist developed his own techniques for applying pastels to paper, using everything from art stumps to his own fingers.

“At some point, my hand has been on every square inch of that painting,” he said.

Barth might have arrived upon pastels by accident, but the exhibit amply illustrates his command of the medium.

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